David Colwell Design

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David Colwell Design

Sustainable Modern Furniture

09/06/2026

Gallery seating designed by David Colwell for the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.

Created as a significant development in making public seating more convivial, each person is given their own “patch” a small but important detail that creates a sense of security and ease.

The circular form allows the seats to be used from any direction, giving visitors a choice in how they relate to one another and to the gallery around them. Unlike linear benches, the arrangement naturally supports groups, conversation, pause and contemplation.

The turned timber seats are dished with softened edges, making them remarkably comfortable, practical and easy to maintain. With their four-seat structure, the benches suggest interdependence and a gentle rotary movement — particularly useful within the square gallery spaces of the museum.

A thoughtful piece of public design, created not only for looking, but for gathering, resting and being with art

21/05/2026

ROXi.

A chair shaped by movement, geometry and comfort.

Made from steam-bent ash, ROXi combines a flexible triangulated structure with a gentle rocking motion — creating a chair that is light, strong and responsive to the body.

Winner of the Design Guild Mark 2025.

12/05/2026

The High Back Work Chair by David Colwell brings together comfort, movement and structural clarity.

Designed for long periods of sitting, it has a gently supportive high back, a steam-bent ash frame and a quiet, purposeful form shaped by use rather than excess. Like much of Colwell’s work, its strength comes from geometry — light, efficient and built to last.

A working chair with warmth, intelligence and ease.

05/05/2026

The C2 Director’s Chair, designed in 1983, was David Colwell’s second steam-bent ash chair and has remained in continuous production ever since.

Light, comfortable and compactly folding, it moves with ease between domestic, meeting and public spaces. Its compound-curved backrest marked an important advance in steam-bending technique, while the form quietly echoes historic bishop’s chairs and Chinese folding furniture.

Specified over the years for private homes, cultural institutions, Maggie’s cancer care centres and was also recently shown as part of the Interiors Saloon for Tempus Fugit / Modern Classic super yacht.

C2 - a study in practical elegance

21/04/2026

Drawn to card and veneer, David Colwell started experimenting with form. Early cones felt unresolved, until a thinner, translucent card transformed the quality of light entirely — softening it.
Influenced by photographic lamps and traditional chicken shed lights, the ellipse form evolved to diffuse light sideways, creating something warmer and more atmospheric.

Even the fixing became part of the story — poppers, left visible, turning function into detail.

The result is a lampshade shaped by iteration, instinct and restraint.

DesignProcess

07/04/2026

The reception desk at Scottish Parliament Building draws directly from the landscape it inhabits — its form echoing the shifting rock and contours of Scotland itself.

Designed as a point of human reference within the architecture, it moves with the flow of people, shaped by and shaping their arrival. Rooted yet fluid, each element holds its own space while contributing to a continuous, organic whole.

A quiet expression of democracy in motion — where structure meets movement, and the building opens itself to those who enter.

25/03/2026

An early and quietly radical work, the Contour Chair was developed by David Colwell in 1967–68 and first shown at the RCA Degree Show.

Created during a two-year collaboration with ICI Plastics, the chair explores the possibilities of Perspex without the use of moulds.

Sheets of hot acrylic were shaped through a process of “free forming” — allowing subtle contours to emerge naturally, strengthening the material while preserving its optical clarity.

The result is both sculptural and precise. Transparent, yet structurally resolved.

Now held in the permanent collection at the V&A, the Contour Chair remains a defining early work.

The chair can be seen as part of Design Matters, an exhibition of Colwell’s work alongside Andrew Pearson, Sally James Thomas, Philippine Sowerby and Sue Hiley Harris.

📍 Mid Wales Arts Centre, Caersws, SY17 5SB
🗓 22 March – 10 May 2026

22/03/2026

Two exhibitions opened this afternoon at Mid Wales Arts — a quiet but powerful gathering of work, material and thought.

Design Matters brings together David Colwell, Andrew Pearson, Philippine Sowerby, Sally James Thomas and Sue Hiley Harris — each exploring form, process and the enduring relevance of making.

Alongside, Transfigurations by Flora McLachlan and Gini Wade offers a more contemplative, atmospheric counterpoint.

Thank you to everyone who came!

On view
22 March — 10 May
Wednesday to Saturday, 10–4

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18/03/2026

Introducing Design Matters — an exhibition in Mid Wales celebrating the work of British furniture designer David Colwell, alongside other artists Andrew Pearson, Sally James Thomas, Philippine Sowerby and Sue Hiley Harris.

For decades, Colwell has worked with a quiet, consistent focus on durability, repairability and human movement — long before sustainability became a design agenda. His furniture is lightweight yet structurally rigorous, relying on geometry rather than mass, and designed to remain useful across generations.

At the centre of the exhibition is the first presentation of the new chair - A Chair 3.

First introduced in 2012, the original A Chair has spent over a decade in daily use — meals, conversations, and the quiet habits of everyday life gradually revealing where the design could be refined. A Chair 3 is the result of that process.

Built using Colwell’s tubular rivet construction, the chair allows the tensile strength of steam-bent ash to be fully expressed. Organised around a triangulated frame, its strength lies in geometry rather than bulk — closer in spirit to a bicycle frame than a conventional chair.

Subtle refinements to form and making have resulted in something calmer, more assured and more comfortable. Not a reinvention, but a quiet distillation of an idea shaped through time and use.

At a time when so much furniture is disposable, the exhibition asks: what happens when objects are designed to accompany a lifetime?

📍 Mid Wales Arts Centre, Caersws, SY17 5SB
🗓 22 March – 10 May 2026
- Private View: Sunday 22 March, 3–5pm

RSVP: [email protected]

Photography: Alex Ramsay
Thank you for allowing us to use your studio to shoot the chair

11/03/2026

We are very excited to be part of the Design Matters Exhibition coming up at Mid Wales Arts.

22 March – 10 May 2026

Exhibition Details:

An exhibition exploring how thoughtful design, material intelligence and artistic practice shape the way we live.

Featuring furniture designer David Colwell, alongside artists Andrew Pearson, Philippine Sowerby, Sally James Thomas and Sue Hiley Harris.

From Colwell’s human-centred furniture design — work held in collections including the V&A and Vitra Design Museum — to sculptural and material explorations in wood, print and woven form, the exhibition brings together artists whose practices share a deep engagement with structure, material and place.

Private View: Sunday 22 March, 3–5pm

We hope to see you there.

📍 Mid Wales Arts Centre, Caersws, Newtown, SY17 5SB

Photograph by

Address

Plot C, Broadaxe Business Park
Presteigne
LD82UH

Telephone

+441544260547

Website

http://www.davidcolwell.com/

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